title: Long-term stable, sub-femtosecond timing distribution via a 1.2-km polarization-maintaining fiber link: approaching 10(-21) link stability.
abstract: Long-term stable, sub-femtosecond timing distribution over a 1.2-km polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber-optic link using balanced optical cross-correlators for link stabilization is demonstrated. Novel dispersion-compensating PM fiber was developed to construct a dispersion-slope-compensated PM link, which eliminated slow timing drifts and jumps previously induced by polarization mode dispersion in standard single-mode fiber. Numerical simulations of nonlinear pulse propagation in the fiber link confirmed potential sub-100-as timing stability for pulse energies below 70 pJ. Link operation for 16 days showed ~0.6 fs RMS timing drift and during a 3-day interval only ~0.13 fs drift, which corresponds to a stability level of 10(-21).
authors.forename: Michael Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Patrick T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Callahan
authors.forename: Amir H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Nejadmalayeri
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xin
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grüner-Nielsen
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Monberg
authors.forename: Man
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fini
authors.forename: Franz X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Kärtner